Today was the 17th Anniverary of the She'ar Yashuv Helicopter Crash.

[Binyamin Yisrael]

The Jewish anniversary is exactly one week before the Secular anniversary. Until the leap month in 2016 as well as because there is a February 29 that year, the Jewish and Secular dates are exactly one week apart and on the same day of the week they were between 1997-1999.

On Tuesday, 27 Shevat, 5757 (February 4, 1997), an IAF helicopter crashed over She'ar Yashuv near Southern Lebanon. The previous Shabbat was Shabbat Parashat Yitro. There is a mention of She'ar Yashuv in the Haftarah.

[Binyamin Yisrael]

She'ar Yashuv

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

She'ar Yashuv (Hebrew: שְׁאָר יָשׁוּב) is a workers' moshav in the Upper Galilee in the northeastern Hula Valley in northern Israel. It belongs to the Mevo'ot HaHermon Regional Council.

It was founded in 1940. As of 2008 it has 200 residents from 78 families. The residents mostly work as service workers for boarding houses. A few work in agriculture and livestock. The moshav came to public awareness after the 1997 Israeli helicopter disaster, when two IDF helicopters collided in midair above the settlement, killing 73.

History

She'ar Yashuv was first founded in February 1940 as part of the Ussishkin fortresses by 30 families from the Hanoar Hatzioni and "HaOved HaTzioni" (Zionist workers). It was originally called Metzadot Ussishkin Gimel and afterward Aleh Reish. The present name is taken from the Bible, Isaiah 10:21 ("A remnant will return, (the remnant of Jacob)").

When the battles of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War ended and a cease-fire was declared at the end of 1948, most of the inhabitants abandoned the community because of artillery shells fired by Syria from Tel Azaziat, which overlooks the community from the east.

In 1949 it was resettled by remnants of the original community. This time, by members of Hanoar Hatzioni from Hungary who survived the Holocaust, came to Israel during the War of Independence and after the war were honorably discharged from the IDF and wanted to establish a settlement.

The Syrians shot at the settlers for 19 years from Tel Azaziat, and in 1957 they murdered Yosef Ben-Haim, a member of the moshav.

In the second day of the Six-Day War, the Syrians tried to capture She'ar Yashuv. Damascus radio and the French daily Le Monde even announced that the moshav had been captured by the Syrians. However, a few of the defenders who stood steadfastly chased away the Syrians with fire. The Syrians returned to attack the moshav a number of times, but did not succeed to capture it. On 9 June 1967, fighters of the Golani Brigade captured Tel Azaziat and removed the Syrian border from the moshav.

During the 1970s and 1980s Katyusha rockets launched by Lebanese terrorists caused property damage in the moshav.

Places of Interest

On the south end of the settlement are remnants of an old settlement with a flour mill.

The "Forest of the Fallen" is located on the southeast edge of the moshav. In the forest are 73 trees to remember the 73 victims of the helicopter crash that occurred on 4 February 1997 above She'ar Yashuv and nearby kibbutz Dafna.

On the east side of the moshav flows the Banias, a tributary of the Jordan River.

[Binyamin Yisrael]

1997 Israeli Helicopter Disaster

Summary

Mid-Air Collision

Site

She'ar Yashuv in Northern Israel

Coordinates: 33°13′20″N 35°38′28″E

Total fatalities
73

Total survivors
0

First aircraft


Type
Sikorsky S-65C-3 Yas'ur 2000

Operator
Israeli Air Force

Registration
357

Fatalities
all

Survivors
0

Second aircraft


Type
Sikorsky S-65C-3 Yas'ur 2000

Operator
Israeli Air Force

Registration
903

Fatalities
all

Survivors
0

The 1997 Israeli helicopter disaster occurred on 4 February 1997. 73 Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed when two Sikorsky S-65C-3 Yas'ur 2000 helicopters, 357 and 903, collided over She'ar Yashuv in northern Israel. The helicopters were supposed to have crossed the border into Israel's "security zone" in Lebanon, but were hovering while waiting for official clearance to go. Previously Israel had moved troops by ground, but this policy was changed as the threat of roadside bombs from Hezbollah increased.[1]

Bodies were brought to the Reading Funeral Home in North Tel Aviv, where identifications were made.

The crash brought about widespread national grieving. Thursday, 6 February, was declared an official day of mourning, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Ezer Weizman attended funerals and visited the grieving families. In addition, thousands of Israelis went to pray at the Western Wall and assemblies were held at schools nationwide.

A commission headed by David Ivry was set up to investigate the cause of the collision, the deadliest air disaster in Israeli history. The committee finished its investigation in mid-April of the same year. It had been unable to find the definite cause of the mid-air collision, noting that the pilots appeared in good health and that no external causes could be found.

[Binyamin Yisrael]

http://yeranenyaakov.blogspot.com/2013/03/geula-update-from-rav-fish-pesah-5773.html

◦And it is known that the helicopter tragedy many years ago over She'ar Yashuv, in the week that the Haftara that contains Yeshaya 7 is read, everyone said that it was hinted in the verses, where verse 3 says "You and She'ar Yashuv your son" and verse 4 said "Keep calm, and be quiet; fear not, neither let thy heart be faint, because of these two tails of smoking firebrands".  We see that even then that a tragedy of the State of Israel is hinted to in this prophecy.
◾And we will bring down an essay about the helicopter tragedy from Dr. Moshe Katz that deals with skips in the Torah.  In it, we see a great connection between the tragedy and the number 73, which is the number of the current year: 5773: On Tuesday, the 28th of Shevat, 5757, a terrible tragedy occurred that is known as "The helicopter tragedy". The tragedy occurred when 2 Yas'ur helicopters belonging to the IDF crashed into each other in the skies of Northern Israel at the time that they were carrying soldiers from the Nahal (Yesod) Brigade to Southern Lebanon. The accident occurred over the Yishuv that is called "She'ar Yashuv". In the incident, 73 people on the helicopters were killed. The incident occurred between Parshat Yitro and Parshat Mishpatim. In the Haftara of Parshat Yitro appear the following verses: "Then said the LORD unto Isaiah: 'Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shear-jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fullers' field; and say unto him: Keep calm, and be quiet; fear not, neither let thy heart be faint, because of these two tails of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and of the son of Remaliah." The connection between the verses and the tragedy is bone-chilling, and was publicized on all forms of media. An entire country is enwrapped in heavy sorrow. Let's delve into the details:
◾the Haftara of the Parshat Hashavu'a when the tragedy occurred, it was Chapter 7 and verse 3. This hints to the 73 fatalities who fell in the tragedy.
◾"She'ar Yashuv" was mentioned in the verses and "two tails of smoking firebrands" and "fierce anger".
◾In She'ar Yashuv at the time of the tragedy, 73 families lived in the Yishuv.
◾In Parshat Mishpatim, read on the Shabbat after the tragedy, this verse appears: "Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel", meaning Moshe went up with 73 other important people in Israel. Again, the number 73.
◾Rav Shlomo Reiskin adds that the tragedy occurred in the Galil גליל, which has the gematria of 73.
◾Also, in the year 1973 was a great crisis for the State of Israel, the Yom Kippur War, when their Kohi Ve'otzem Yadi fell.
◾Also, Route 73 in the Galil starts at Adashim Interchange - צמת עדשים - which has the gematria of משיח בן דוד.  And it ends at Nehalel Interchange - צמת נהלל - hinting to the Great Hallel with which we will praise Hashem in the Geula.  And the road crosses the Yishuv called Ramat David.  Rav Avraham Weinberg adds that David and Shelomo together ruled [in Yerushalayim] for 73 years.
◾Also, when searching in Torah codes for the minimal meeting between "אסון" and "המסוקים", a table shows the minimal meeting, and shows כ"ח שבט, along with שאר and ישוב.

[Binyamin Yisrael]

I recall that February 4, 1997 was also the day that Bill Clinton's State of the Union was competing with the civil trial of OJ Simpson for TV coverage. The same night of the State of the Union, OJ was found liable for the wrongful deaths of the people he murdered. This eventually lead to his downfall because he took part in a violent crime to try to get back items that were taken from him to pay for the money awarded to his murder victims' families.

[Binyamin Yisrael]

Today was 20 years. This past Shabbat, I read the Haftarah of Yitro in my ArtScroll Isaiah Milstein Addition of Nevi'im Acharonim. I'm also up to the same point of History in my ArtScroll Kings Rubin Addition of Nevi'im Rishonim.

[Binyamin Yisrael]

Hundreds gathered at Kibbutz Dafna in the Galilee Wednesday night to mark the 20th anniversary of one of the deadliest accidents in the history of the IDF where 73 soldiers were killed when two helicopters collided while en route to southern Lebanon.

President Reuven Rivlin, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Chief of General Staff Gadi Eisenkot and the families of the victims were in attendance.

On February 4, 1997, two Israeli Air Force Sikorsky CH-53 “Yasur” helicopters carrying IDF troops collided in midair killing everyone on board. One of the helicopters crashed near Kibbutz Dafna and the other near She’ar Yashuv. A memorial now stands in Kibbutz Dafna for the victims, with 73 boulders, each with the name of one of the fallen, surrounding a small pool.

Speaking at the ceremony, Rivlin addressed the families saying that “we carry the horrifying words ‘helicopter disaster’ etched on our hearts forever” and that the tragedy reflected Israel as a whole as the fallen soldiers had come from communities across the country.

“The family of the ‘helicopter disaster’ is the family of Israel. Jews, Druze and Bedouin, secular and religious, from all communities, cities, kibbutzim and moshavim, the center and the periphery, sons who were a cross-section of society,” he said.

Rivlin also used the event to warn about the continued threat that Hezbollah poses to Israel, saying that “then, as now, Israel faces the challenge of protecting its citizens.”

“In the decade since the Second Lebanon War ended, relative quiet has prevailed along the northern border. In Zaria and Malkia the farmers are working their fields, and the bed-and-breakfasts are full. In Kiryat Shemona and Metulla, a new generation of children has matured that isn’t familiar with the fear of the sirens and the Katyushas or the smell of the bomb shelters.”

“We can go from zero to a hundred in seconds. We have not forgotten what a cruel enemy we face,” Rivlin said. “There’s no real quiet when Hezbollah is rearming. There’s no quiet in the aspirations and plans of Hezbollah, an organization supported by Iran, which tries incessantly to harm Israel.”

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman told the bereaved families that their unity has shown the unique aspect of Israeli unity, “a true unity of human beings born in pain but also in determination.”

“I can say with pride that the IDF’s soldiers and commanders continue to face all challenges bravely and responsibly thanks to the paths of values paved by your sons. It is because of their willingness to sacrifice their lives due to their love of the country and their belief in the justice of their mission.”

“This is the way which will lead us to implement the goals we face: to strengthen our deterrence and to ensure the security of the citizens of Israel. If somebody will force a war upon us, the IDF will know how to achieve a crushing and clear victory in any campaign or battle,” Liberman continued.

“We will continue to fulfill their mission, to protect the state they so loved, to strengthen our forces and continue to live for the sake of our living children and for the sake of those who are not with us. This is the way of the State of Israel.”

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot stated that the results of the Second Lebanon War created the best security reality in decades.

“We are now only a few kilometers from the northern border and its residents have witnessed its unprecedented calm for more than a decade”

But Eisenkot noted the challenges of Hezbollah, its continued growth and ongoing attempts to transfer advanced weaponry from Syria to Lebanon.

“For many years, the IDF has dramatically improved its defensive and offensive capabilities, dramatically. The IDF is prepared for any confrontation, in the north and in the south. Our competence and readiness is high and it can adjust itself for war,” he stated.

[Binyamin Yisrael]

Today was the first time in 20 years that the the Jewish date of the crash fell on the Tuesday after Shabbat Parashat Yitro, like it did in 1997, the year of the crash. This only happens when Hanukkah begins on a Thursday Night. The date fell on a Tuesday in 2011 and 2014 also but it was following Shabbat Parashat Mishpatim, which happens when Hanukkah begins on a Wednesday Night.